Systems and apparatus for controlling the flow of traffic are well known to the highway engineering arts. Prominent among the apparatus and devices employed in reducing the speed of traffic in general and individual speeding automobiles and vehicles in particular are changeable traffic lights or flashing lights which are installed at intersections or dangerous locations on roadways; appropriate signage placed at the approaches to intersections and the approaches to dangerous locations which signage may also be combined with flashing lights; and apparatus or devices such as "speed bumps" or "speed breakers" in the form of projections permanently built into the otherwise flat surface of a roadway to provide a projection which will create a bump which will tend to create discomfort or damage to a vehicle traversing the bump at an unduly high speed.
The present invention is in the nature of new and improved "speed bump" or "speed breaker" equipment which provides advantages not heretofore available in the development of this type of device as well as overcoming certain shortcomings present in existing speed bumps and speed breakers.
Specifically the present invention is directed to a traffic control apparatus which may be installed in roadway surfaces to provide a selectively operable speed bump, i.e., a bump which may be activated into a traffic-slowing position in which it projects above the surface of the roadway or which may be selectively rotated into an inactive position in which the roadway remains flat in the area of the inactivated speed bump. The apparatus of the invention is in the form of an elongated steel roll of approximately 18" diameter which roll has two flattened portions formed on its periphery between its normal rounded or cylindrical peripheral portions. The roller is mounted in a housing in a manner whereby the curved cylindrical portions project above the upper wall of the housing, which upper wall is installed in a generally coplanar relation with the roadway in which the traffic control apparatus is to be mounted. An activating control is associated with the roller so that it may be rotated from an active position in which the curved speed bump portions project above the roadway surface into an inactive position in which the flat surface is generally coplanar with the roadway and the upper wall portions of the housing.
As a more specific aspect of the traffic control apparatus of the present invention, appropriate signage such as a flashing light or other warning device may be mounted proximately of the housing upstream thereof with regard to traffic flow thereover to provide warning to approaching motor vehicles of the activation of the speed bump. When the speed bump roller is moved into an active position in which the contoured surface projects above the highway, the warning signage is also activated to provide motorists with information of the activation in order that the speed of vehicles approaching the activated speed bump may be safely reduced.
For a more complete understanding of the principles and details of construction of the apparatus of the present invention as well as other of its attendant advantages, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings taken in conjunction with the following detailed description.